Sep. 15, 2023
HARRISBURG – Rep. Carl Walker Metzgar (R-Somerset), House Republican designee to the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA), announced today that the authority is asking for public input after it drafted its first volume of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
“In order to meet the needs of today, high-speed broadband must be accessible for residents living in rural Pennsylvania,” said Metzgar. “Expansion is the modern-day equivalent of rural electrification, and this input period will help us develop a strategy to deploy broadband across Pennsylvania.”
In August, the authority unanimously approved a multi-year plan key to securing more than $1 billion in federal resources to expand broadband access to hundreds of thousands of locations across the Commonwealth.
The plan, known as “Connecting the Commonwealth,” aims to bring affordable broadband access to unserved and underserved areas of Pennsylvania through measures such as expanding infrastructure across the Commonwealth, partnering with community-based institutions to provide digital literacy training, and strengthening existing affordability programs.
Residents can view the draft document by
clicking this link.
To submit comments, residents need to scroll to page two and click on the blue hyperlinked words “this form” under the overview section at the top of the page.
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority was established by the Legislature through Act 96 of 2021. Its mission is to coordinate and facilitate funding for broadband buildout across the Commonwealth.
Representative Carl Walker Metzgar
69th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Nate Temple
717.260.6396
ntemple@pahousegop.com
RepMetzgar.com/Facebook.com/RepMetzgar